On June 1, 5th grade Girl Scout Troop 10975 built and installed benches at the Pollinator Garden at Stony Brooke Park. The troop consists of 12 girls who earned their Bronze Award through this project. In order to achieve this award, the girls needed to invest 20 hours towards their designated project. To decide which project we would complete, we narrowed our ideas from ten down to three. From the top three, we took a vote, and building benches received the most support.
To complete our 20-hour requirement, we worked with multiple people in the town who gave us guidance. We first met with First Selectman Melissa Mack, who suggested we meet with the Conservation Commission to explore our idea of creating benches in an area in our community. The Conservation Commission expressed interest in developing the park and welcomed the idea of benches there. We submitted a design of the benches for approval to the Town Building Official. After his approval, we met with the Conservation Commission one more time to finalize our plans.
To build and install the benches, we divided our troop into two groups. One group focused on building a bench while the other group focused on prepping the ground for installation. Once each job was complete, the groups switched roles to allow everyone to participate in each stage of installation. The finished benches are ready for public use, so please stop by and enjoy the pollinator garden!
While earning this award we learned to cooperate with each other, adapt to changes, and work with different people to address a community issue. We would like to thank Lucia Lumber for donating materials needed for our project, the Conservation Commission, Mr. Edward Flanders, and First Selectman Melissa Mack for supporting our idea. We would especially like to thank Mr. Daniel MacWilliams for helping and guiding us through building the benches.